John Holyoake of Irvine says, "I could stay on the porch and look at this view all day," from South Sea Shanty at Crystal Cove. The 1931 beachfront cottage features four decks. The living/dining room has high ceilings, a sofa bed, two twin beds, front porch, kitchen, bedroom with two twin beds, and an ocean view bedroom. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Movies filmed at Crystal Cove

1918 Treasure Island

1923 Stormswept

1928 Sadie Thompson

1928 White Shadows in the South Seas

1929 The Isle of Lost Ships

1934 Treasure Island

1951 Two of a Kind

1974 Herbie Rides Again

1988 Beaches

Source: Various

About the Crystal Cove Historic District

About: 12 acres with rental cottages, education and museum shacks and the Beachcomber Café. The public beach at Crystal Cove State Park extends 3.2 miles.

Location: South of Newport Beach. Pay $15 to park at Los Trancos, off the Pacific Coast Highway, and either walk down a path, through a tunnel to the beach, or pay $1 to hop the Beachcomber shuttle bus. If you're checking into a cottage, turn down toward the beach and follow the signs.

Tours: Every second Saturday of the month, there's a free 10 a.m. public tour of the 12-acre historic district. Parking is $15.

The very mention of the Crystal Cove cottages stirs up so much passion among devotees, it’s almost like you’ve stumbled onto a religious cult with a secret headquarters.

It’s not just that they’re located on one of the most beautiful beaches in Southern California. Nor that the battle over their fate lasted for decades, played out in the pages of every newspaper.

It’s more about the bewitching, casual, vintage, driftwood charm of the places that keeps people endlessly searching online for days, weeks and months, hoping to get a reservation to stay in one.

This isn’t some decorator’s storyboard of what California beach homes should look like. This is the real thing – funky, beat-up and thrown together by actual beach-dwellers, who kept brushes tied outside the door to get the sand off their feet before coming into the house.

“It feels like it’s real,” said Laura Davick, who grew up in the cove and founded the nonprofit Crystal Cove Alliance and is co-author of the book “Crystal Cove Cottages” (Chronicle, 2005). “It’s a place where time slows down and stops.”

The shacks were originally built, starting in the early 1920s, on land owned by the Irvine Co. Owner and rancher James Irvine had allowed people to tent camp on his beach for decades, enjoying the ocean waves and cool breeze. Some came for the entire summer.

Movie companies used the cove as a stand-in for tropical locations like Hawaii and Polynesia, planting palm trees that remain there today and building grass shacks as movie sets. Its secluded location between Newport and Laguna Beach, in a private cove, meant the chance to create a fantasy world.

People soon moved into the abandoned movie-set shacks and then began throwing up their own more permanent vacation homes, on land that was still owned by Irvine.

These beach shacks originally were constructed of materials scavenged or washed up on shore. Telephone poles that floated in on a storm became a foundation. Windows were from a demolished hotel. Driftwood was built into porches and awnings. A wrecked ship provided lumber. Mahogany cabinets from a wrecked cabin cruiser went into a kitchen.

There were no architect’s plans or building codes. There weren’t even any addresses, until gas lines were laid in 1930.

Cottages were all furnished with the cast-offs from people’s real homes.

For decades, the cove was a sanctuary for painters, families and even a former circus family, living in what ultimately became 46 cottages spread out along the cove.

But in 1979, the Irvine Co. sold 1,898 acres of coastal property, including Crystal Cove, to the state for park land. Despite the residents’ best efforts, and legal battles that stretched on for years, they were forced out of their oceanfront paradise in 2001.

Initially, state plans were made to build a pricey resort on the site – now designated as the Crystal Cove State Park Historic District – with rooms estimated to cost $350 to 700 per night.

But public outcry stopped the deal, and a group of activists, led by Laura Davick, paved the way for the cottages’ restoration. Crystal Cove was designated as a state historic park.

Jim Newland, who manages cultural resources for the state parks system, worked with Davick and others to create a plan to preserve and restore the cottages. While state building codes required them to be made safe for occupancy, with details like fire sprinklers and structural support beams to keep them from falling down, they retain their whimsical charm and historic significance.

Ironically, in an era of mass production and master planning, when homes in surrounding hills are built to match color palettes and blend into each other, the riotous chaos of these simple beach shacks attracts visitors who feel like they’ve won the lottery if they get the chance to stay in one.

Nearly everything in the cottages is genuinely old, from the iron bedsteads to the bedside lamps to the coffee tables. And, as much of it as possible is from the original shacks, beat up and weathered looking, with the patina of age.

When the original furnishings weren’t available, Davick and others scoured vintage shops, looking for exactly the right piece.

“I found this in Old Towne Orange,” Davick said, proudly, pointing to an old iron bedstead. She recently was able to return the original kitchen stove to one unit; it had cooked there for 40 years. Today, due to fire danger, it’s only for display.

The mattresses, bedding, couches, linens and refrigerators in each unit are new, along with microwaves that hide under old-fashioned oilcloth covers.

Related Links

John Holyoake of Irvine says, "I could stay on the porch and look at this view all day," from South Sea Shanty at Crystal Cove. The 1931 beachfront cottage features four decks. The living/dining room has high ceilings, a sofa bed, two twin beds, front porch, kitchen, bedroom with two twin beds, and an ocean view bedroom. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The south view of Crystal Cove State Park. Many cottages, behind and on the ocean side, have been restored to their original charm. FILE: CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Children play at sunset in Crystal Cove. Their family might have been one of the lucky ones to have gotten a reservation at the cottages normally booked six months in advance. FILE: CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Romantic Retreat, Crystal Cove cottage 33, is perched on a cliff and built in 1938. From the kitchen, living room and bathroom, right, it feels as if you could walk right into the water. It looks like an infinity pool from that vantage point. Crystal Cove Alliance President, Laura Davick, background, grew up in the Shell Shack a couple doors down, and fought to save and sustain the area. "Saving the area has given my life so much satisfaction and purpose," Davick explains. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Olivia Rosen, 8, of Laguna Beach plays at Beachcomber's Lodge. In its first year, approximately 24,000 guests checked into 13 quaint, historic cottages which opened to the public in June 2006. Her family's persistence and luck has gotten them more than 11 stays at the remodeled cottages. FILE: CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Welcoming pineapple bedside lamps light up one of two bedrooms of the 1931 beachfront cottage, South Sea Shanty at Crystal Cove. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
On each Crystal Cove cottage hangs a plate with the name and the year built. The 19A unit of the beachfront South Sea Shanty is on the second floor. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Paradise Lodge, 39B, is a dorm-style Crystal Cove cottage with panoramic ocean views. It overlooks a partially covered brick patio. The 1924 cottage features three bedrooms, one private and one shared bath and a shared kitchen. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The living/dining room of the 19A South Sea Shanty has a Murphy bed and is located in the center of the two bedroom Crystal Cove cottage. No TV. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Romantic Retreat guests leave stacked rocks overlooking the Crystal Cove Historical District from the patio deck. Beyond the ocean rocks are cliffs and plant life that has remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A wooden staircase leads to the Crystal Cove Historical District. The Beachcomber Cafe, right, (blue) is one of the few Orange County restaurants on the sand. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Beaches cottages at Crystal Cove, #13, from the 1988 movie of the same name. Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey star in the chick flick about friendship. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The "Beaches" cottages from the 1988 movie is at the bluff's base. A more secluded spot is just around the corner. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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